CentraState Medical Center offers some of the most advanced cancer treatment currently available. Soon, we will add a critical new weapon in the fight against cancer: Proton therapy.

CentraState Healthcare System is pleased to be the sole hospital affiliate of ProCure Treatment Centers, Inc. which is joining with Princeton Radiation Oncology to build a $160-million, 60,000- square-foot facility in Somerset to offer this leading-edge treatment. The first and only proton therapy center in the New Jersey/New York metro area, the ProCure Proton Therapy Center is scheduled to open in 2012 and will accommodate 1,500 patients annually.

Proton radiation is so precise that virtually all of the radiation ends up directly in the tumor rather than in surrounding healthy tissue. This is especially important when the tumor is located near critical organs or structures such as the brain, heart, rectum, bladder or spinal cord. Because healthy tissue receives far less radiation with proton therapy, a recent study conducted by Harvard Medical School reported a 50 percent drop in secondary cancers with proton therapy versus x-ray therapy.

Hence, patients receive highly effective cancer therapy with fewer side effects and complications. Because of reduced side effects, proton therapy is considered the ideal treatment to use in conjunction with chemotherapy. As healthy tissue is less affected, proton therapy may allow higher doses of radiation to be delivered to tumors, potentially improving cure rates.